Talk:National Security-planks-GOP2008
The 2008 Platform Committee received public input through a website. Ultimately more than 13,000 comments were received and considered. The following is a sampling of those comments: (Ethan - Washington, DC) (Anton - Auburn, WA) sEJfS1v-fU0 Speak English (Matt Lewis - Alexandria, VA) tR_j9EjPq2Y Comments harvested (Devin - Lebanon, ME) We need to do what is necessary to protect this country. If you have your phone calls recorded, it means you are talking to terrorists. Is my granny's phone bugged? I highly doubt it! I have never heard more than one or maybe two stories of an innocent American citizen getting his rights trampled by US Intelligence...and how many has it saved? (Cathy - Lebanon, TN) We support the FISA bill, warrantless wiretaps (because we don't believe that a Repub administration will misuse this privilege) and other activities to protect us against terrorists and radical Islamists. It is ridiculous that our radicals in the Supreme Court have granted enemy prisioners at Gitmo full rights under our Constitution. If we have to release the Gitmo prisioners if the courts decide they must be released, I suggest that we drop them off at the homes of the 5 Supreme Court Justices who read something into the Constitution that did not exist. We want you to protect American citizens. (Maurice - Sheridan, OR) We need to finish what we started in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether we should be there or not is irrelevant right now. We are there, and we need to finish the job we started. We cannot do what we did in Viet Nam, and pull out before we accomplish an absolute victory. We also need to get politics out of trying to run the war. We need to tell our Great Military minds to “Git er Done.” We have the greatest military in the world, and they should be able to do what they are trained to do. (Pete - Richland Hills, TX) We'd all like to see the war in Iraq and Afghanistan end but we can't just pull our troops now. The job has to be finished and when we do leave we have to leave with a stable government in place. Few people remember WW2 and the fact that it took us many years to resolve many of the issues there too. As far as what the countries think of us the war would probably be over if we weren't so concerned with political correctness. The left would love us to surrender and would have most likely done so in 1945. I want the Republican Party to make certain the we win and create stability in both countries. (Candace - Louisville, CO) It would not be difficult for this country to secure our borders if our leaders had the WILL to do so. The Republican platform should include a plank that clearly conveys a sense of resolve and determination that the border problem will be fixed and illegal immigration will be stopped within the next few years. (Larry - Amarillo, TX)Securing our borders is a basic function of government. This is a security issue and a sovereignty issue. If the government can't secure our borders, it's people should seriously question why it exists and actively seek to replace it. Multiculturism, cheap labor, and integrating the U.S. into a NAU with Canada and Mexico are not acceptable overt or covert excuses for the government not performing this basic function to keep us a secure, sovereign nation. (Chuck - Berrien Springs, MI)All Federal funds should be cut off from state and local governmental units, which refuse to abide by and enforce Federal laws. Those funds should be given to state and local governmental units that uphold and enforce Federal laws. Giving “Sanctuary” to illegal aliens is a prime example where this carrot/stick approach should be used. (Charity - Springfield, MO) The best border security is to remove the incentives that bring them here illegally. No free food, free housing, free schooling, free medical care. And all the other programs that they are given. No entitlements. Then there would be less illegal crossings and more coming legally, and we need to make it easier for them to come legally. We want the best and the brightest from other nations to come to this nation that are liberty minded and would appreciate what the Constitution offers them, and add fresh liberty loving people to our nation. (Michael W. - Arlington, MA)The Pentagon procurement process must be streamlined, to ensure that our troops always have the best equipment available, in a timely manner. We live in a dangerous world. We must ensure that our military is of sufficient size to deal with any threats to our homeland, or citizens and interests overseas. (Jason - Greensboro, NC) Our military is severly underappreciated. The only, and I mean only reason I would EVER support a tax increase, would be to increase the pay and benefits of our soldiers. These people should be paid in proportion to what they are risking. They should be among the wealthiest people in our country. They should not pay taxes. I say that any soldier, in any branch of the military, should earn no less than 100K. This would boost morale, and give incentive to the best and brightest we have to join the military. (Charity - Springfield, MO) We need to take better care of those that have sacrificed for true liberty. Who signed up to fight for us and the Constitution. They need to have better health care, the socialized conditions are unacceptable. What they have to go through to get care is unacceptable. It is their blood that pays for our liberty so it doesn't have to be ours, we can do much better for them. (Marcia - Fort Jones , CA)Support our veterans by honoring their promised benefits for medical care and education. Support the provision of veterans advocates in every county to ensure that they receive their benefits. Treat our vets with the utmost honor and respect. Make sure that the families of veterans and National Guardsmen are provided for and adequately supported while they are away on active duty. Provide continued medical support and re-entry serices for veterans injured in the line of duty. (Brittney - Marysville, WA) We need to do a bottom to top house cleaning of the Veteran's Affairs system. As a veteran myself, I would rather die a slow and painful death than go back to a VA facility. The doctors don't care and they treat veterans as less than human. None is more apparent than the VA e-mail sent out from the Temple, TX location where the doctor encouraged people to diagnose veterans with an “adjustment disorder” rather than PTSD as a cost saving measure. And they wonder why the suicide hotline had over 20,000 calls last year. We need a house cleaning and we need it now! It shouldn't take 6 months to process a disability or compensation claim. A veteran should not have to call a number to be put on hold to get an appointment to drive an hour to wait in line to make an appointment to come back in a month to see a doctor. The VA system is fatally flawed and needs to be completely re-organized. (George - Washington, DC) The USA should not support the effort by the International Criminal Court to charge Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide. It just doesn't make sense to forfeit access to Sudanese oil to the Chinese. We should be building bridges with the Sudanese government. (Michael - Merritt Island, FL) The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa must be managed based on our needs and their capability to assist us. Corruption is the norm, and willingness to confront even so obviously criminal a regime as Zimbabwe does not exist. However, Africa is potentially the source of great mineral wealth, so it is in our interest to have reasonably good relations with all but the most odious regimes. It is also the locus of one of the greater medical tragedies of our age. We will not cure AIDS, and we won't even slow down its spread until Africans convince themselves to change their traditional sexual practices. We should continue AIDS relief as we can afford to do so. We should demand tangible reforms in conjunction with any economic assistance, but we should not expect much. Africa is also a continent in which there is a great deal of competition among organized and not-so-organized religions for the hearts and minds of people, many of whom still practice traditional religions. Encouraging religious liberty is in our interest, as the exclusivist religions of today's world are Islam and socialism. (Helen - Crestview, FL) We need to aggressively seek to spread the tenets of capitalism throughout Central and South America. It is vital to our National Security that we seek to influence their decisions via engagement in a free market economy. Rampant capitalism will help squelch the failed economic populist policies of the region and provide partners in a free market for the US. (Mark - Great Neck, NY) We cannot back down from the missile shield, no matter what Russia says. We should continue expanding NATO, no matter what Russia says. We should increase sanctions against Iran, no matter what Russia says.